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Biography
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Formed by Peter Cunnah and Al McKenzie in 1991, D:Ream was originally
designed to be fronted by a female diva with Peter in a writing and
production role and Al in a DJ role within a live band setup. An important
live date arrived before the diva role had been filled and Peter, having
written the tunes, found himself fronting, albeit somewhat reluctantly,
he learned to love it.
By late 1991, D:Ream had built a solid club reputation through PA'sand
parties and had been touted as the act that could bring back vocal and
the song onto the dancefloor, at the time dominated by instrumentals
and samples.
D:Ream's
initial reputation lay in an ongoing series of 12" white label mixes
of 'U R The Best Thing' which soon topped the dance charts.
The combination of strong songwriting and fat grooves kept this and 'Things
Can Only Get Better', fresh on the dance floor throughout some 18 months,
the latters anthemic optimism reflecting the early 90's clubland positivity
and energy. 12"promos by DJ friends like Sasha, Leftfield, Sine and
David Moralessecured a reputation for hot low level marketing with attitiude
but Peter was already interested in evolving the tunes toward shorter
radio friendly 7" formats in the run-up to a debut album.
This
backed by the long currency of the 12" mixes in the clubs made for
four TOP 40 placings in '93 with edits of 'U R The Best Thing',Things
Can Only Get Better, Unforgiven and Star/I Like It. Suspicions of a pop
destination were raised by Al MacKenzie's sudden departure at the end
of that year, and sure enough, Peter went headlong for TOP 5 with refinings
of 'Things Can Only Get Better' a number 1 and a masterful Perfecto edit
of 'U R The Best Thing' which hit number 4.
A rapidly reissued 'D:Ream On Vol 1' LP, whose trippy e-inspired sleeve
had been replaced with a full-on 'popstar' image of Peter, confirmed the
end of D:Reams clubland phase. A second LP, 'World', in 1995, suffered
from a distinct lack of DJ support and D:Ream's chart-placings for singles
slipped also with only 'shoot me with your love' seeing the inside of
the TOP 10.
Famously
'Things Can Only Get Better' was to enjoy a further life as a political
anthem which led labours 1997 election victory.
Although Peter had embarked on recording a third album 'Leap of faith'
he knew that the D:Ream game was up and acceeded to record company demands
to issue a Best Of D:Ream collection of the first two albums singles while
he developed solo and collaborative material in preparation for repositioning
himself as a writer/producer working behind the scenes for other artists.
Biography
Written By: Michael Kearney
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